Cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin are the shiny, tempting and incredibly risky money of the future

Cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin -- that thing your friendly neighborhood Redditor never stops talking about -- have existed online for nearly a decade, offering investors a chance to purchase units of a decentralized digital currency that retains the same value worldwide, but Santiago Esquivel believes they could burst into the mainstream for the first time in 2018. "I believe 2017 was an early adopter phase," he said. "2018 will be a mainstream year for it." It's understandable he'd think that. Esquivel invested $5,000 in cryptocurrencies and said he increased his wealth 10 times over when their value later rose. Some reports have tracked an escalating value in the first half of the new year, although it's worth noting there have also been dips. It's a tempting buy-in, if an expensive one. A single Bitcoin costs nearly $10,000. However, said Xavier University finance professor David Hyland, putting money into cryptocurrencies is also exponentially more risky than letting your dollars stay dollars.